Today’s gallery is a series of images with at least one Beetle per shot, out in the open, mingling with the traffic of the period. The Beetles are not always the star; sometimes the little bug is highlighted, and in others, it’s just part of the background. But each portrays a period when these were a common transport. So look out for those little bugs if you wish, or whatever model that grabs your fancy.
WOW! I started my morning playing “Where’s Waldo.” Some of those Beetles were hard to find. I also spotted some oddities including, I think, a Jaguar, trunk facing us. There is another oddity in that photo that I cannot identify. It is a smaller sized foreign car with a hood like a thirties-era vehicle. I will check back later today to see if anyone has identified it. Great photos, Rich! By the way, the expression on the lady with the 1959 white Chevy and red interior looks so happy (sarcasm).
That small car jumped out at me also, and in a vacuum I would think it’s British. The fact that there’s also a Jaguar there as well as two Renaults made me wonder if this was some military base (there’s also a tall flagpole) where “oddball imports might be more common??
Your post gave me a chuckle…my Dad first drove a Beetle sometime before 1953 when he was in the US Army in Germany; they assigned him one at times (guess the Jeeps were in Korea?). He left the Army in 1953, fast forward to 1966, he bought a ’59 Beetle as his first “2nd” car, it was a rust bucket and was totalled in front of our home in 1968 by a teenager who lived at the end of our street…what did he replace the ’59 with? A new Renault R10 bought at Almartin Motors in South Burlington, Vt.
I think he bought the Renault partly due to his business trips to Corbeil-Essonnes , south of Paris, in the mid 60’s…he enjoyed his trips, kind of had a period of being a bit of a francophile. But the R10 did have more space than a Beetle (less important for a commuter car though) ….and it did have Michelin radials (his first) and 4 wheel disk brakes. Probably not a wise purchase, but since the prices were about the same, going by features the R10 could have seemed like a good deal…plus it had good traction like the Beetle, being rear engine RWD (albeit watercooled) which was important living in Vermont (10 years later on his 2nd “tour” moving back to Vermont, he bought a FWD Subaru DL for much the same reason…Saabs were popular choices but also more expensive and he didn’t want to pay too much for his 2nd car).
Not a common choice, but my Dad could buck trends, sometimes severely, like when he moved from Southern California to Pittsburgh, PA in 1961 (we moved a lot in the early days due to my Dad’s job, he wasn’t in the military anymore but became a chemist after leaving the Army, started working on semiconductors in 1956. He also went back to buying American cars as his 2nd car (bucking trends again) after many years of imports, starting in the 80’s.
I’ve never owned a Beetle, but I picked up the VW (watercooled) itch in 1981 and haven’t owned anything but 3 VWs in 42 years. I do wish I got a chance to drive the R10, my Dad sold it just weeks before I got my learner’s permit (just about 50 years ago).
@ ZEWP :
IIRC those R10’s had a better heater than the VW bugs .
*Very* underpowered though ~ one time a teacher pulled a U-Turn into some low tree branches, we all grabbed then and held on for dear life, he nearly smoked the clutch in reverse but couldn’t move the car until we let go…..
It was brand new at the time .
-Nate
That’s definitely a mystery car. I feel 90% sure it’s not a Ford Anglia or Prefect which would be my first suspect, but not enough to rule it out.
I believe the mystery car is a Bentley MK VI, made from 1946 to 1952.
While I had my concerns about the highway safety of my 1964 grey Beetle when I was a young husband and father, there was a lot to admire in the overall design, engineering, and quality of these little people movers.
The Type 1 Beetles worked well in just about all driving conditions while much of the contemporary small car competition showed themselves to have significant limitations in one way or the other.
If well maintained they worked well. If not well maintained, they still worked… just not well.
Want to see members of the silent generation and boomers stop, stare, and smile? Have a Type 1 clatter past them.
Yup, mine brings smiles to the faces of old guys and young kids. Great photos, thanks for posting them.
I always like to check the locations on these, and the Hotel Wawona still exists in Yosemite, although it is now the Wawona Hotel.
Yeah, those Beetles were everywhere once upon a time, and I sorta wish I’d had the ownership experience at some point—I just always needed more cubic feet for stuff, I guess.
Photo #7 (parking lot) has that institutional look of a VA Hospital or something; Google helped me learn that it’s Oak Ridge, TN…makes sense. The Lincoln is maybe six years old then, but by 1965 it did seem that way.
Photo #9 seems familiar, Fort-So-and-So; I have vague memories visiting it (or something similar) as a child and being disappointed–“is that all there is after today’s long drive?” etc.
The Beetles are a fun challenge for today—good idea!
The picture at Fort Ross, north of San Francisco, with the Datsun 510, VW Bus, MGB, Mustangs, Renault, two Beetles (including convertible) and the Rover 2000 – along with the usual Americana – is very representative of the automotive scene when I was a kid in Northern California. The only thing missing is a Volvo or an Opel.
The “Renault” is even more obscure than that; it’s actually a Simca.
Yeah, I think you’re right. The R8 and Simca 1000 sure looked similar though.
Enjoyed the photos! The Beatle was Still very foreign in the 1950s settings! Photo #2 the Falcon has never seen a bath it along with the 69 Chevy cheaped out with base hubcaps and blackwall tires. I’d love to see that 1972 Kingswood Estate today, Boy they where Really built like tanks with their 125 wheelbase even the lug nuts where different from the sedans and hardtops.
The ’69 Chevy appears to be a Bel Air sedan, based on the chrome molding on the fender and the body-color painted window frames. If so, my algebra and trig teacher in high school had a new one just like it, in the same color IIRC.
I’m guessing the Shell station is 1974 or so, the Ford truck looks pretty new. $49.95 for a Spring Tune Up Special is over $300 today!
Photo #3 is Burlington/South Burlington, VT. Greer’s dry cleaners is still in business (contravening a lot of stereotypes) but I can’t tell where they were located in that circa-1960 pic.
Here’s mine:
Hotel Riviera, High St. (MLK Blvd.) & Clinton Ave., Newark NJ, 1988
Find the Beetle!
Junkyard, Route 46, Pine Brook NJ, c. 1966
Cool picture! (I found it there on the right). So many other cars to identify as well!
From back in time when a junk yard could be located near water, and in Montvale 🙂
Beetles .
There, I fixed it for you .
I like the fact that many of the cars in this junkyard pic. have been heavily stripped .
Renault Dauphines, Hillman Huskys, many more odd balls I remember from back in the day .
-Nate
Uhh . . . Yup–now I see it. Yes–Beetles (plural). Good eye!
Wow, even “way back then” there was a subset of people that couldn’t park: Taking up two spaces, parking crooked, parking too far over to one side of the space…
Must have had many more door dings than we have today. Especially with the long doors so many vehicles had back then.
We were at the famous SF Lombard Street this summer, here is the photo.
Nice pic of Lombard Street in San Francisco. Love the ‘55 Mercury making its way downhill. Easy on the brakes! The Beetle could inch safely down in second. Uphill in first all the way.
I know it is off topic, but really warmed my heart to see a Ford Pinto in the mix. Those played a key roll in our families driving history along with the Chevy, Pontiacs, Cadillac, etc.
Me too!! I want that “Pinto” actually!!
I’ve decided that #2 is taken at a university or perhaps high school parking lot. I think that’s a 1972 F/S Chevy at the right, owing to the non-5mph bumper that was exclusive to that year. But the rest of the cars look to me like older, hand-me-down sedans and wagons that used to be mom or dad’s car.
IIRC in 1972 GMs full-size cars Voluntarily met a 2.5 MPH front bumper standard. Getting in some experience for the Mandatory bumper regulations being put into place for the 73 and 74 model years.
Great pics! I can still smell these old city streets from when I was a kid. We lived in the countryside and the blended smells of hot ashfelt, cement, and exhaust fumes that I smelled in the cities left an indelible mark in my mind. Wouldn’t mind a trip to Woolco with mom and dad again sometime……
And the Las Vegas photo with the Riviera Hotel – seems relatively uncrowded. Circa 1970 or 1971.
“Shecky Greene” on the “marquee” just steals the picture all together..lol
I don’t recall seeing a Beetle prior to June 1966. Yet when we had arrived in Canoga Park someone came over to give my mother and three kids a visit to the beach at Santa Monica. The drive was over Topanga Canyon in Beetle. That was the first and only ride in a Beetle. Now I didn’t want to leave Maryland and eight grade for a new place. However, at the beach I got to see a Hollywood promotion using two young women in bikinis never seen in Maryland. So two firsts and the second one sealed it for California.
Here’s one from the ’60s in Toronto. Before my time, mostly.
The work of Arnold Odermatt. A Swiss police photographer for more than 40 years. Working from 1948, until his retirement in 1990.
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Doesn’t appear to be much “body damage”. The large crowd , keeping it’s distance is “curious”.
Picture #5…with the ’59 Bel Air in the foreground is my favorite. So California. So many fins.
And that lady, man, she looks pissed. “Just take the damn picture, ok???” LOL!
I never owned a Beetle (my VWs were Rabbits), but I got to drive a number of them that were owned by friends. The coolest was a red ’72 convertible.
It’s interesting that 1960 Oldsmobiles (in whole or part) managed to get into 3 of these photos (#3, #5, and #9) in different body styles — Vista 4-door hardtop, wagon, and 4-door sedan, respectively.
Thinking the compact two away from the Jag in photo #7 could be either a Triumph Herald or Vitesse. Love that marquis with Connie Francis – she’s easily found on every rerun episode of Hawaiian Eye on MeTV! Saw several 61 Olds 88’s with that unmistakable rear end flat fin. Ours lasted well over 120,000 miles until the PS system blew out. Dad said it was known as the “Baby Cadillac”.
Dear god, the critters got in absolutely everywhere. Apparently very hard to contain.
It’s almost like there were millions of them in the US.
A nasty thought, that, though to be fair, it was the era before masks and vaccines, of course.